The Bitcoin Foundation

The Bitcoin Foundation

The Bitcoin Foundation is a nonprofit corporation, founded in 2012, in Washington DC, Unites States of America.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com

What is his mission?

As the company has stated, his goal is to: “standardize, protect and promote the use of bitcoin cryptographic money for the benefit of users worldwide”.

It was also modeled on the Linux Foundation and it is being funded by companies that are dependent on the bitcoin technology. According to some official documents, Gavin Andresen, Charlie Shrem, Mark Karpeles and Peter Vessenes are some of the original members of the company. Out of all the names stated above, Gavin Andresen is one worth to mention, being one of the former lead bitcoin developed and employed in the Bitcoin Foundation as a chief scientist.

In 2016, the Bitcoin Foundation was listed at number 27 on the list of the most influential blockchain organizations in the world.

There are, however, some bad stuff to mention about the foundation. Charlie Shrem, the former vice-chairman, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Since 2014, the company started to focus solely on the development of open-source technology, which could benefit the bitcoin industry.

In 2015, the company faced some major challenges. At the board meeting that took place in December that year, Bruce Fenton, the executive director of the foundation, opened his speech with the following statement: “We need additional funds if we wish to retain employees.” His concerns where truly backed by solid numbers. In just two years, the foundation had seen around seven million US dollars evaporate and its total assets were close to zero.

If that wasn’t enough, a few ex-board members faced criminal investigations and because of some poor management decisions, the Foundation had to reconsider its mission in order to be able to survive.

The company had encountered some difficulties in the recent time, as raising concerns over the bitcoin ability to serve as a replacement for the traditional fiat money are more and more intense.

Other foundations, that are aiming to promote the use of cryptocurrencies had also emerged, the Blockchain Alliance being a good example for that.